Maria Windeyer moved into Tomago House in 1847 and the story goes that she still keeps a close eye on her homestead in the Hunter Valley.
Visitors and also volunteers have claimed they can feel her and her family's presence at the site over a hundred years after her death.
A few years ago big storms did loads of damage but they also revealed some surprises - during the renovations two trap doors were discovered in Maria's bedroom!
"Until the storm, this floor was covered by carpet," says Marjorie Biggins from Friends of Tomago House.
"I knew it was there because it creaked - it's a proper little room. We think she used it because there were still bushrangers ... and wild aboriginal tribes and she was a lone woman."
The underground cellars, trapdoors and attics all tell stories about the social history and status of the Windeyer family.
Maria became the mistress of Tomago House after her barrister husband Richard died just before they were due to move in.
She was forced to run affairs single handed and despite struggling financially, she made a success.
Jenny Lamont from Friends of Tomago House explains she even left her mark in the landscape.
Builders and others that have worked on the renovations have told Jenny about unexplained encounters.
"Different people have different experiences but I myself spending so much time here it's my world ... it's just one of those things that happens and you learn to live with it."
It therefore comes as no surprise that Tomago House has become a favourite for ghost tours.
Our weekend tour at Tomago House was as active as the very first tour I conducted there almost 5 years ago.
We broke our large group up into smaller groups with the front room with Andrew using the Portal, we have Emma up in the attic sensing for ghosts, Anne in the bedroom area with SB11 along with Kristy and I was downstairs in the cellar area.
The cellar takes up the whole area under the house so it much have seemed enormous for the era it was built in.
I set up REM PODS and a Proximity Device similar to the REM POD.
Our first group through got a little bit of K2 activity.
Our second group down got nothing - it was all quiet. So I decided to take them into the space next to the cellar.
As we commenced talking we could hear the proximity device start to beep.
We went quiet and listened more.
It sounded as it someone was playing with it - touching it to see the lights and the sound.
So I suggested we sneak back in quietly. Without turning lights on we stepped back into the darkness of the cellar to see the Proximity device continue to beep on and off as we stared and watched. No wind, no movement, it was set higher on a railing and whoever it was was having a grand old time until I yelled, "SPRING!!! We can see you playing with that!"
And all went quiet.
I then went on to mention that whoever it was could continue playing with the device if they wished. We would not disturb him/her.
I did ask if this person could answer some questions and to make the device beep once for a 'yes' which happened.
So we found out that this was a little boy and he would continue to play as long as I would sing him a song.
I sang twinkle, twinkle, little star - he was very happy and made the device beep continually for a few seconds before it stopped.
The third group came down and we didnt get a lot from this one with sporadic contact and a little bit of activity on K2 meters. Our last group had more luck.
It seemed as though the little fellow was running from the device on the railing to a person holding a K2 meter about 1.5 meters away as the lights flashed first on one and then the other and back and forth.
We do really think that we had encountered something quite interesting down in the cellar that night.
Certainly the guests would agree.
Similar contact was made at the other stations.
Responses came from the Portal and the SB11 and also a little boy (the same one?) was also encountered in the attic.
Tomago House is quite a place and we are very lucky to hold our investigations in the house several times a year.
If you are interested in being a part of our next investigation please email info@newcastleghosttours for more details or join our mailing list by leaving your email with us.
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